The flight of political

reform - will it soar?

By Florence Syme-Buchanan

Once upon a time there lived a wise old man on a tiny islet called Vaiara in Manihiki.

Across Manihiki’s vast lagoon at Omoka atoll, lived a young man, who con sidered himself very clever and wanted to everyone to know that he was just as smart as the old man on Vaiara.

So he thought he would put the old man’s legendary wisdom to the test. He caught a small tern, and sailed to Vaiara to test the sage. The young planned to clasp the bird in the palm of his hands and ask the old man what he held. If the old man correctly guessed it was a bird, then his reputation was well earned. The younger man would then ask, “Is the bird alive or dead?” If the old man said alive, he would crush the small bird in his palms, killing it and if the sage guessed it was dead, the young man would set the bird free. Either way, the younger man thought he would win the riddle and prove himself cleverer.

“What is it that I hold in my hands,” asked the young man when he reached the sage. “A bird,” replied the old man. The young man thought, “Yes, what people say about the wisdom of this old man must be true.” “Is the bird alive or dead,” asked the young man. “My son, replied the old man, the bird is in your hands.”

The fate of that fragile bird can be likened to the concept of political reform, soon to be in the hands of the Cook Islands public. The question is, will Cook Islanders crush it or set it free? They will have this choice in a national referendum Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry wants held shortly after the findings of a Commission of Inquiry into political reform has made

public its findings.

The three-man Commission is headed by laveta Short, himself a former Cabinet minister and more recently Cook Islands high commissioner in Wellington -a post he held for close to a decade. Professor Ron Crocombe, a well-published Pacific academic and scholar John Herrmann.

Both men have made their personal views on present Cook Islands governance clear.

But “we’re not here to impose our will on the people. Our task is to find out what people want,” Short assures.

Recently Short made headlines in weekly Cook Islands Press with comments denouncing the country’s current political system as too costly. Short’s views on the calibre of Parliamentary representation expressed the feelings of the majority of the informed public. But after being slammed by the opposition Democratic Alliance party for going public when the commission chair should “remain neutral”, Short accused this writer of misrepresenta tion and distorting the facts.

In a published response to Short’s com ments, this writer invited the Commission chairman to listen to the taped interview because he may have forgotten what he’d said.

That startling line trip-up aside, Short and his colleagues have a huge task ahead of them. And there’s little money and even less time. Within three months and NZSIOO,OOO, the Commission of inquiry into political reform aims to every Cook Islander aware of political systems and able to make informed decisions about the country’s political future.

The Commission has to compile infor mation on comparable countries and their political systems, then get this out to all islands in the group, including New

Zealand-based Cook Islanders. laveta Short says this is to make sure people have a fair idea of what a political system is and what different types there are to make comparisons.

He says there’s a danger in not educat ing people first before asking for their views. But an awareness programme tar geting all Cook Islanders will be a huge and difficult undertaking. The northern group reception of the AM station is poor and usually the Rarotonga based radio AKTIV can only be heard at night, if the weather is calm. Northerners get no cur rent newspapers, television and aren’t hooked up to the Internet.

The situation is marginally better in the southern islands where they do receive AM radio but only a handful of the daily and weekly newspapers are flown in. Even fewer people have access to email. The radio station rarely covers complex issues in its news service.

Targeting the 60,000 New Zealand based Cook Islanders won’t be easy with such a tiny budget. In the Cooks the cost of the present political system to the nation is at the forefront because of the present eco nomic depression. Short says the Commission can’t ignore the fundamentals of democracy.

“Representation of the people often costs more than we realise because of the nature of our islands.” Despite the eco nomic depression, Short says the time is right to review the country’s political sys tem and “make sure it is designed to give the optimum benefits.”

“We are so small, mistakes can cost us enormously.” The present system he says is too costly, the elections too unnecessari ly expensive and "there’s a lot of room for improvement.” “We unfortunately inherit

ed the Westminster type system that may be suitable for England and New Zealand, but we adopted that system without look ing at the uniqueness of our country, the size of our population and the division that it brought into the country.” He says the Commission wants to come up with some thing that does away with the divisions caused by party politics. laveta Short is believes the interest of the nation has yield ed to party politics.

He’s “fairly confident” that the prime minister and government will accept the Commission’s recommendations because of the demands for change made by Cook

Islands people.

The Commission’s findings are expect ed out in December. The prime minister wants public discussion on this before the national referendum. Sir Geoffrey hasn’t said whether the referendum will be held at the same time as next year’s general elections, which have to be held before August.

He was reported saying no money has been budgeted for the referendum and the next eight months would be “interesting.”

Because of the isolation of the islands and the lack of access to the media, some Cook Islanders are saying that Sir Geoffrey’s ref erendum plans will create more confusion

amongst people.

They recall the last referendum when government made little effort to fully inform people on the issues they were asked to have their say on. Because of this, only 5,707 of the 11,780 eligible voters, or 48%, actually put their ticks to the multiple referendum questions. This effectively kept the status quo on the country’s name, five-year Parliamentary term, national flag and national anthem.

Complaints have also been made that the referendum would be unnecessary because of the widespread consultation the Commission will undertake before making its recommendations on political reform. laveta Short disagrees saying when a nation is faced with change in its political system people must have their say if they want it or not.

And in three months time, every Cook Islander is supposed to have an informed opinion on whether they want political reforms in full flight bringing new chal lenges to the island state. Or the concept crushed, retaining a familiar, but expensive system. ■